225 Business Schools and 50 Engineering Colleges Closed Since 2011

During the last decade, hundreds of new institutes came up and thousands of aspirants joined them. That was a time when the country added up to one lakh seats to its professional colleges every year. But, since 2011, 225 B-schools and over 50 engineering colleges across India have been closed. Also, many other colleges have trimmed programmes, branches of engineering and streams in management course.

On the academic floor, the Master of Business Administration programme was once supreme. Now, for the first time, overall growth of MBA education seems to be negative in the books of the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE). In 2011-12, 146 new B-schools came up and 124 that were already running closed down. This year so far, 101 management colleges have closed down, where 82 have started. Along with this, the Master of Computer Application (MCA) course, 84 colleges stopped offering the programme this year, when only 27 started MCA courses.

To curb the sprouted problem , AICTE has decided to allow colleges to offer a five-year dual degree programme and also to permit graduates of science, BSc (computer science) and BSc (information technology) to jump to the second year of the MCA course. Yet, the small positive growth in the sector is from the engineering colleges where new institutes are coming up faster than closures taking place, largely in Andhra Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Punjab and Rajasthan.

According to S S Mantha, AICTE chairman, this is a turning phase for the professional education sector. Colleges in remote India and institutes of poor quality are not getting students. And for colleges, there is just one key to attracting students: institutes need to be top-of-the-line colleges. There is no payoff in running a bad college.

Despite AICTE has allowing colleges to offer a five-year dual degree programme and also permit graduates of science, BSc (computer science) and BSc (information technology) to take MCA course in second year there is small positive growth in the sector. It is the engineering colleges where new institutes are coming up faster than closures taking place, largely in Andhra Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Punjab and Rajasthan.

Speaking on the similar notes, IIM-Ahmedabad Director, Samir Barua links this problem to slowdown and said, “The job market has been tight for a couple of years. Earlier, many would give up a job to get an MBA and then re-enter the job market after pumping up their CV. They are hesitant to take such a risk now. The pressure is being felt and applications for MBA are falling. But undergraduate programmes like engineering would not feel the same tension as everyone still at least wants their first college degree.”